Plans et projets pour une ville en mutation

Abstract

The story of contemporary Venice goes far beyond the stereotype of a city folded in on itself and in its splendid past. The many plans and projects of development express the attempt to make the city re-enter the circuit of international trade and industrial progress. What provides the material and ideal link with a number of dynamic systems are mainly the infrastructures for mobility and accessibility: not only the construction of some trans-­lagunari bridges, but also a suite of proposed and partially realized terminals for railroads, automobiles and aircrafts, together with underground and above lines of rapid transit. The history of the 20th century is therefore marked by a series of ambitious projects, first limited only to historical insula, then suitable to a larger urban scale and finally extended to the region around. Such a potentially Greater Venice includes the sea-front (the Lido), the lagoon backland with a series of new and existing settlements. Being one of the largest industrial centers in the country, Portomarghera is both the symbol and materialization of such an effort. The Master Plan of 1962 will seek to construct the guidelines of a “Grande Venezia”. For many reasons – including the 1966 terrible flood –, such an ambitious plan would not have taken shape. That contributes to the character of “unfinished metropolis” that the Venetian conurbation still holds, albeit set within a framework far from being static.